Sustaining the Standard at Safety
By David Villavicencio
HurricaneSports.com
CORAL GABLES, Fla. – There is no secret about the University of Miami’s ability to produce elite safeties.
Just this past weekend Ed Reed was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame, the latest and greatest of a long list of accolades that includes a College Football Hall of Fame induction, a Super Bowl title, a NCAA championship, nine Pro Bowls, back-to-back consensus All-America years and an NFL Defensive Player of the Year award.
But Miami’s elite safeties date back several decades. In 1972, Burgess Owens became Miami’s first All-American safety. Fred Marion was an All-American in 1981 and Bennie Blades won the Thorpe Award in 1987 before beginning an excellent NFL career. Then came Darryl Williams and C.J. Richardson in the 1990s. Reed continued the tradition in the early 2000s and passed the torch to the legendary Sean Taylor.
In more recent years, Miami has produced standouts like Brandon Meriweather, Kenny Phillips, Deon Bush, Jamal Carter and last year’s duo of Jaquan Johnson and Sheldrick Redwine.
The Hurricanes enter the 2019 season looking for a new pair of starters on the back end of their defense and hope their next safety tandem will continue the tradition of excellence established by those that came before them.
“It’s good competition, it’s just making everyone else better out on the field,” junior Amari Carter said. “Linebackers, safeties, everybody is looking better on the field. We have a great receiving corps, so making them better. Running to the ball and doing everything that coach asks us to do from the beginning.”
Carter is one of the most experienced safeties on the team; recording 38 tackles over 25 games over his first two years as a Hurricane. Sophomore Gurvan Hall has joined Carter on the first team so far in camp and the former four-star recruit has flashed the ability to have a big second year in Coral Gables.
“I feel like I came in with my head on right and I had a great spring and a great summer and I need to keep building on that,” Hall said.
A native of West Palm beach, Fla., Hall was one of the defensive stars in Miami’s first scrimmage of fall camp. Hall used his combination of size, speed and ball skills to tally four tackles and pick off two passes, returning one of the interceptions for a touchdown.
“We’re looking for some guys to step up in the secondary,” head coach Manny Diaz said. “So seeing a guy like Gurvan Hall with two interceptions – one was on a pick, the other was on an outstanding break where he made an outstanding play, that we think he’s that type of guy – was really encouraging,” Diaz said.
The duo of Carter and Hall are roommaters at Miami like their predecessors, Johnson and Redwine. Much like Johnson helped Redwine with his transition to safety, Carter and Hall spend time working on their craft, too.
“At home, we watch film together and we talk to each other about what we messed up on and how we can do it better,” Hall said. “We mess with each other sometimes, but that’s my brother. I’m just a sophomore, so I look to Amari like a big brother. I am growing up though and I have the mindset of a man.”
“I feel like everything we go through here is not easy,” Carter said. “Nothing is easy. You need those people around you. It’s not just me, it’s everyone. Everyone is getting closer. Gurvan, that is my brother. We fight, we’re there for each other. We meet in the middle. It’s a bond that real brothers have. We’re not related, but that’s like my brother on and off the field.”
The pair played sparingly behind Miami’s All-ACC safety tandem in 2018. Carter and Hall got most of their game action on special teams, but were absorbing knowledge every day on what it took to be a safety for the Hurricanes.
“I didn’t really get a lot of playing time behind Redwine and Jaquan, but I learned so much from those guys,” Hall said. “I could see how much the team meant to them and it just made me want to work harder to be a great player and do great in school and in the community. Their example just made me want to do more and help the team more.”
Miami safeties coach Ephraim Banda credits the success at safety to the standard established by all the greats who played the position. Under Banda, Miami has produced four NFL players in three seasons and all four have been excellent examples for the 2019 safeties to follow.
“I think the biggest thing that I’ve seen between them is just the culture that we’ve built in that room over the last few years, starting with Jamal Carter and Rayshawn Jenkins, and then Redwine and Jaquan and the standard that they held and put up there,” Banda said. “They understand exactly what it is, they understand what urgency is, when I say it. They understand how important it is, and it’s not just a word. The biggest thing, too, is that they’ve seen when they are urgent, and try to reach for the standard every day and are consistent, how well they play. As soon as they see the tangible thing… ‘oh, I’m playing well because I am doing these things’ – then all of a sudden they’re bought in and it’s over after that. It’s easy.”
As an upperclassman in the safety room, Carter feels a responsibility to take on more of a leadership role in 2019 after learning from Banda, Johnson and Redwine over his first two seasons.
“I’m older,” Carter said. “I have more responsibility and I just make sure every day that I’m in the right mindset and do what I have to do to make the team better.”
In addition to Carter and Hall, redshirt senior Robert Knowles and freshman Keontra Smith are in the mix for playing time at safety. So is former striker Derrick Smith, who returned to his original position this fall and has opened some eyes
“I think he did a really good job in the offseason of spending a lot of time in the meeting room and getting extra work,” Banda said. “I think he improved in the weight room and really dedicated himself in that area, and really bought into coach [David] Feeley. To be honest with you, the best thing that happened to Derrick was Coach Feeley and his staff. They did a tremendous job with him and countless other kids, if you haven’t noticed. So I think the biggest difference you see in him is a testament to our strength program and to him, because he has really got himself in that meeting room and really helped himself mentally. But he still has a long way to go.”
The competition is fierce at safety, with Carter, Hall, Knowles and both Derrick and Keontra Smith pushing each other daily. Add in Bubba Bolden, who is expected to begin practicing with Miami before the season starts on Aug. 24 against Florida, and the Hurricanes have plenty of talent to choose from at the position.
“It’s really tough,” Hall said of the competition. “We all have our days, ups and downs. As the days keep going, we all keep learning to grow, grow as young men on and off the field.”
